Return of the Queens – Interview with author Ine Verlinden

The power of your life, living the life that is uniquely yours! We truly all have the capacity to create heaven on earth in our daily lives. Somehow, through the ages we forgot about these skills. But we can bring back the very essence of our lost power to restore the balance, to re-use the untapped power, and restore the souls of all people and our societal systems. When we rise up to become genuine kings and queens again we can also develop a profound understanding of the cycles of nature and get a glimpse of the magic of creation again.

I had the great honour and joy to speak with Ine Verlinden, the author of Return of the Queens. Ine lives in Belgium and is passionate about a high quality of living, and sharing this with those who have the same goal. Ine works in the field of innovation and she researches trends and foresight, sustainable thinking and also universal patterns, wisdom and consciousness. Besides writing, she gives inspirational presentations, she is a strategic sparring partner for business people, a yoga teacher with Samadhi experience, and a lover of life.

Whether you are a man or a woman, this book will provide you with deep insights on what it is to bring untapped power back into our lives, and feel empowered to be the true person that you truly are, so that you can contribute to life in your own unique way. I can really recommend the book to anybody who is passionate about exploring the feminine and masculine energies, without losing their sense of reality.

Interview with Ine Verlinden

Dirk Terpstra: Can you tell me a bit more about your intention to write Return of the Queens?

Ine Verlinden: I will start with a story of how I came about to write the book.

I went to South Africa and was in a place called ‘Wild Spirit’ for a week. It was a wonderful place to be. Just before I was leaving, the owner, a lady, said to me: “Come on over here. I like to talk to you.” And she continued: “If you want to write your book, you are very welcome to do that here.” I thanked her for this and it kept going through my head why she made me such a generous offer. Then I started realizing something.

When I was young, I had a friendship book. Most of my friends had one. We were all writing about what we wanted to become when we grew up – from the age of seven, I wanted to become a writer and this lady triggered my memory for that, and it kept me thinking. The second time I went to South Africa to write about intuition, and I was just going to let it happen here.

At one point after my trip, I was in a small chapel in Antwerp. There are only two chapels in private hands in Belgium, and this was one of them. The door was always closed, but one time the door was open. I went inside and in the old windows you could read the stories about women. I was talking to the owner and I was sharing a story about what I had already learned about Maria Magdalene. The owner listened with interest and asked me if I was willing to do a talk on the 500th anniversary of the chapel, and I agreed. And the story that I shared, became the first chapter of my book.

Later, when I started working for a corporation in Brussels, I strongly felt that I couldn’t be fully the woman that I had become in this place because I had been developing myself from within so much. I felt that I wasn’t allowed to be fully me during my work in the ‘real life’. I then told myself that I was going to make sure that I could stay the woman that I am. From that moment on, I discovered so much about my own femininity that I didn’t even know it existed. And so, every step along my way, it became clearer and more integrated. That’s how I started writing the book.

Dirk Terpstra: In the book you speak a lot about femininity and masculinity, and that it’s not per se related to women and men. Can you explain that to me?

Ine Verlinden: These topics arose when I was working in innovation and sustainable thinking, and ways to put this into practise. I was seeing all these different patterns and I became curious why sometimes things didn’t come together. When I was traveling, at one point I got some clear insights that many imbalances are so clearly related to the very basics of masculine and feminine energies – they are so often not in equilibrium. Although I write a lot about femininity, it was clear to see that so much was about the masculine – about action and being outward focused. In so many places, women are often doing very tough work, and it doesn’t make sense to me. It doesn’t feel right.

At home in Europe, I saw (and still see) women fighting to get a place in society, but I also felt that they are not relaxed about it. I felt that men and women had almost become the same thing. The more I looked at all patterns in society, the more I found that the ratio between the masculine and the feminine is the most important foundation, and all stories are built upon that.

Dirk Terpstra: You live in Belgium. How do you experience what you just explained, in the Belgian society?

Ine Verlinden: Well, things are changing, and people are becoming more aware of the inequality. People are so stressed out and this has become the new norm. Things got out of balance and people got themselves into a stress-mode. We see many companies now who have the focus on relaxation because they realize how stressed their workers are. It’s masculinity in overdrive. If you want to have very creative people, you better make sure they’re relaxed because that’s when the best ideas arise. Because if we keep adapting to a system that is mostly masculine focused, then we keep creating more of the same story.

Dirk Terpstra: There’s currently quite some focus on the inequality of women in our society. Do you think we should enforce certain laws to make the position of women stronger, or would it be more effective to start inspiring and educating men, about restoring a healthy balance between their masculine and feminine energies?

Ine Verlinden: For me it is mostly the second one. Because when women who have been trained into thinking according to a masculine system are pushed forward, there won’t be particularly more feminine energy present.

I know that I am not a feminist because I am for both men and women. It’s not one or the other. I am not for a matriarchal society either because it’s the opposite of the same story. I think it’s very important that people understand that these the masculine and the feminine are two parts you need to develop inside of you first, before you can apply it in society.

Since the book came out, I have received many requests about writing a book about masculinity. Because the masculinity is not in its developed form either. So many long for that in society. Men so badly want to represent that true masculine energy that is wonderful to be around. So it’s very interesting to observe for me that it’s not just that we need to learn more about femininity. It’s all about bringing the two in balance.

Dirk Terpstra: When experiences and emotions are not properly dealt with, they get locked in the body. What’s the best way to handle our emotions?

Ine Verlinden: The first thing is to accept that emotions are not a bad thing and realize that they are supporting you to bring you more awareness and wholeness. For me, emotions are there to show me that something is out of alignment with who I truly am. Do not run away from them. Do not suppress them. Do not condemn them, but truly accept them as something beautiful. With this wisdom we can create wonderful things.

It also depends on how much suppression there has been on your emotions how to go about. Sometimes you can’t do it all by yourself. Sometimes the emotions have been suppressed so strongly that you need somebody else to help you unlock all that you feel, because they can be so painful that you need somebody on your side to comfort you. If you allow it all to flow, transformation can happen really quickly and it turns into something wise for you. See it like this – What would you do with a little child who is upset, or angry or sad? You are just on their side and comfort them.

Dirk Terpstra: What’s the secret to bring more fulfilment and balance into our lives?

Ine Verlinden: You can have emotions, but at the same time, never lose your excitement. Truly believing that things happen for you for the good. Even the things that you don’t want to experience have a gift in them. After a while you’ll be able to see through this and you can experience joy and excitement again. I believe that our natural state of being is joy, love and enjoying the adventure.

Research has also shown that you need positive emotions for your brains to open up. So people won’t learn anything new when they’re in a negative state. This is another reason to get yourself into a more positive state, and experience emotions like wonder or excitement, or even acting crazy. And the quicker we can act on the emotions we are feeling, the less they get stuck in the body.

Dirk Terpstra: You spend an entire chapter on the tantric way of loving, which is basically the opposite of how we portray love and sexual experiences in the Western society. What does love mean to you?

Ine: Love making or Love?

Dirk: Love!

Ine Verlinden: Love means life! And it makes so many extraordinary things possible … Wow, what a question. It’s a beautiful question though. Yes, I know for sure that Love means Life to me! The entire universe is made up of Love.